Is It Possible? Totally Off The Radar Authentic Hunan in the San Gabriel Valley? You Betcha--Yummy on Rosemead

With teams of Chowhounds criss-crossing the San Gabriel Valley looking for the newest restaurant openings, it's hard to believe that an authentic Hunan style restaurant could have opened in the SGV months ago without garnering some degree of attention. Yet, that seems to be the case with the simply named Yummy over on Rosemead Blvd., found only by happenstance by one of my tipsters who was out buying tools. There are a number of good reasons why Yummy has sat in anonymity. First of all, it's located several blocks south of Garvey Ave., and while I'll go way past Garvey in some parts of the SGV, I seldom go that far south on Rosemead Blvd. And even if you spot Yummy, you'd likely dismiss it as an Americanized "greasy chopsticks" operation as my tipster did. Furthermore, their business card highlights "Pho", so any Chinese food options would appear to be an afterthought. And lastly, if you look to park in their lot, the only signs you see refer to parking for "La Casita" restaurant. Yet against all these odds, we have an honest to good, real Hunan style restaurant. Full Hunan menu of a hundred items, plus or minus. A dozen Hunan fish dishes, mostly fish head or whole fish selections. Even the food not marked spicy is in fact quite spicy, so if you like to get your spicy on, this is the place for you. Yummy is at 2541 Rosemead Bl., in South El Monte, open from 10am to 10pm.

The San Gabriel Valley Asian community is a very heavy user of Yelp. There will usually be multiple reviews of newly opened restaurants right from opening day. Consequently, only two Yelp reviews over several months for Yummy reinforces its obscurity.

Yelp photos also make it look like a pretty standard vietnamese restaurant. Hard to believe vietnamese cuisine and hunan cuisine could exist successfully in the same restaurant. Possibly even a LA first?

South El Monte is heavily Vietnamese, so I guess they're catering to the local crowd. Now the menu they gave us when we came in only had Hunan dishes on it, so I guess you have to ask for a Vietnamese menu.